Our History

Dunedin
theosophists ... have [sic always] been active seekers with diverse
interests... reports Dunedin Lodge member Alistair McMurran as he shares..
The Dunedin
Lodge of TSNZ was formed in 1893 and the Charter of the Dunedin Lodge was
signed by the first International President, Colonel Olcott on 23 May 1893.
Since then, many interesting and lively characters have been members and given
service to the Dunedin Lodge of the society.
The Inglis and
Pollard families were the most influential in the Dunedin Lodge last century.
Mrs A. J. Pollard, their mother, was president and her daughters Cecilia and
Truda Burrell also filled that role. Rose Pollard was a long time secretary and
treasurer.
The most noted
member of the Inglis family was Agnes, who was the acknowledged mystic of the
lodge. She lived into the 1980s and wrote an unpublished history of the Dunedin
Lodge that emphasised the influences of the Ascended Masters who formed the
Theosophical Society in 1875. Her mother and sister were also members.
Agnes Inglis
epitomises the different threads that have been part of the Dunedin Lodge
history. She was an avid reader, psychic, occultist and the daughter of John
Inglis who joined the lodge in 1901. Agnes was a long term secretary and
librarian with sparkling eyes and a deep spiritual understanding. She was a
member of the Lotus Circle, a Sunday school for children, that met weekly in
Liverpool Street. Agnes Inglis knew that the Theosophical Society had to
continually adapt and was never meant to stay in the Victorian era.
The Inglis
family was helped by the Masters when little sister Annie died at nine months.
"Dad brought home a theosophical book and mother read that a baby often
comes back to the same family,'' Inglis wrote. She was uplifted and also helped
by a great Adept (Indian) who appeared to her in the passage of their Maclaggan
Street home. His eyes seemed to give great strength. Five years later she saw
photos of these Adepts (Masters) who live in the Himalayas and she recognised
her helper. Lex (Alexandrina Inglis) was born on 30 January 1903. "Mother
knew before she was born that this was the same baby,'' wrote Inglis. Inglis
was taught dancing and elocution as a member of the Order of the Round Table
when growing up. "We had to prepare a talk. It was an effort speaking for
five minutes on a single topic,'' she wrote.
The Round Table
also emphasised service and part of her duty was to empty the ashes from three
large fireplaces and set the fires ready to light for Sunday evening TS
lectures. Inglis had a number of direct contacts with the Theosophical Masters
and was once saved from serious injury when a large bookcase fell on top of her
at the Theosophical Society building in High Street. "I did not speak
about the voice of the unseen person whose advice saved me,'' she wrote,
"I believe he was one of the Masters who helped form the Theosophical
Society in 1875. They have clairvoyant vision and other occult faculties
unknown to ordinary people.''
The Masters
Kuthumi and El Morya and their assistants have influenced key decisions taken
by the Dunedin Lodge over the last 116 years. This influence is highlighted in
the University of Otago history thesis by A. Y. Atkinson on The Dunedin
Theosophical Society 1892 to 1900 that was published in 1978:
"One day
travelling on the train from Sawyers Bay to Dunedin, Augustus William Maurais
noticed that the elderly gentleman seated across from him was reading a
theosophical magazine. Introductions were quickly made and the stranger proved
to be Grant Farquhar, wealthy partner in the tannery factory at Sawyers Bay and
a keen enthusiast on all matters theosophical.''
Maurais called
a meeting to discuss the formation of the Dunedin Lodge in December 1892. It
ended in disagreement between advocates of spiritualism and Maurais who
considered the Wisdom Tradition the most important aspect of the society. The
spiritualists were not invited to the meeting in February 1893 that started the
Dunedin Lodge of the Theosophical Society in New Zealand.
Maurais, who
had read deeply into the Wisdom Tradition, became the first secretary. His
knowledge was necessary during the first decade when theosophy was viciously
attacked from the pulpit by the famous Dunedin Presbyterian minister the Rev.
Rutherford Waddell. Atkinson wrote: "Scarcely a day went by when the
morning or evening newspapers did not print a letter written by a theosophist
or one of theosophy’s critics.” (A large part of the correspondence centred
around the scandals and frauds associated with theosophy.) "Maurais,
writing in the Evening Star in 1894, pointed out that the body of knowledge
itself was more important to theosophists than the beings, human or spiritual,
who had conveyed it.'' However, on reading these old records, one comes to the
conclusion that a great deal of what Jung calls synchronicity was taking place
at the time. You could call it ‘the touch of the Master's hand’.
The visit by
Annie Besant on her second visit to Dunedin in 1908 (she also visited the lodge
in Dunedin in 1894) was a highlight for Agnes Inglis who wrote, "She came
to our room in the Lotus Circle and sat behind the table by the window."
Inglis wrote in her historical account, "She said, 'Please close the
window. I must not get a sore throat as I have to lecture...’ Annie Besant spoke
to us on good citizenship and told us to choose work to help the country and to
keep our town beautiful and clean. At night the theatre was packed. Her voice
was quiet at first, but grew stronger as she went on; her voice reaching a high
pitch. Sometimes she stopped and you could hear a pin drop. She had no notes
and spoke entirely from memory.''
The Dunedin
Lodge had leasehold rooms in Dowling Street from 1914 but moved to a freehold
property at 236 High Street in 1945 when the owners doubled the ground rent.
"The introduction of television in the early 1960s caused our Sunday night
audiences to dwindle so we changed the public meeting to a week night, thus
breaking the habit that the lodge began in 1893,'' Inglis wrote. "We have
to adapt to modern needs and understand what people need most along spiritual
lines.''
Atkinson
highlights the early members of the Dunedin Lodge as intellectuals with
compulsive reading habits and breadth of outlook. "They were confident and
possessed a tendency to deviate from the norm,'' Atkinson wrote in his thesis,
"Maurais's desire for ‘back to nature self-sufficiency’ was an example of
this.'' Long-term member Charles Burrell was another example of an active
member with diverse interests. Each week he would swim from St Clair Beach through
the surf to the off-shore White Island and back. He was a very fit man who had
an ability to read people's minds.
New people have
come into the lodge and shifted the thinking and activities. It has never been
static. The lodge helps people gain skills and confidence. For example, the
quiet and gentle Victor Nelson was aged 90 when he gave his first public talk.
Nellie Huls, the president for 13 years during the late 1970s and 1980s, opened
up the lodge and allowed the public to attend all meetings. It brought in new
and vigorous people. Richard Botting, a natural healer, made a huge impact in
the late 1980s and once gave a public talk on crystals without notes. Erika
Bianca was a vigorous president during the 1990s who, with the help of Dr
Tarlton Fraser, changed the style of public meetings. Outside experts were
invited to give public talks. This worked and the numbers at meetings increased
and membership grew.
The president
has always been a powerful person in the lodge. Their personality and ideas
have shifted the emphasis and added to the vast complexity that is the Dunedin
Lodge. Under Erika Bianca the move was away from pure intellectual pursuits to
a wide variety of general interest topics. In Phil Philpot's reign as president
in the first decade of the 21st century, the intellectual side of the lodge was
emphasised Victor MacGill has introduced a consensus approach to his
administration.
Lack of finance
was a problem at this time and a lot of energy of the committee was spent on
housekeeping duties and not on promoting theosophy. Philpot and former
Australian Aelred Edmunds took the initiative and sold the building at the
height of the property market boom. It was another example of the guidance of
the Masters.
The Dunedin
Lodge headquarters has been at the old RSA building in Moray Place for the last
three years. The financial freedom from selling the High Street property
enabled the lodge to set in place a vigorous weekly programme. The RSA building
was owned by new life member Margaret van der Vis, who started the meditation
group. It was sold when she shifted to a retirement village at Mosgiel with her
husband. The new owner wanted to use the building for other purposes and the
Dunedin Lodge had to find a new home.
The lodge moved
to new rooms in the Upstart Building in Water Street in 2009. After five years
there the lodge was able to buy the building at 469 Hillside Road (the former Fitzroy
hotel at Bathgate park).
The last word
of this history, belongs to Linda Hampton, the great granddaughter of John
Inglis, who echoes the impact the Inglis family has had on the Dunedin Lodge
over the last 100 years: "Perhaps we ought to ask the Masters what should
be done [next].....They still have a hand in what the TS is – [we can] trust
that their guiding hands will continue to show the way.''
Websites of
interest:http://www.theosophy.org.nz/branches/Dunedin/dunedin.htmlhttp://www.theosophy.org.nz/branches/Dunedin/archives.html
Key Dates for
the Dunedin Lodge:
1893 Dunedin
Lodge formed (February). Charter signed by Colonel Olcott (May)
1893 Rented
small room next to Jacobs Tobacconist 1894 Visit by Annie Besant (also 1908)
1897 Visit by
Colonel Olcott
1900 to 1914
rented large room, John Reid's Building, Liverpool St and temporary rooms 1904
Lotus Circle opened and Round Table formed
1905 Visit by C
W Leadbeater (also 1910, 1912, 1918)
1914-45
Leasehold property 17 Dowling St
1920 Mr G
Richardson donated 2000 books to form library
1930 Visit by
George Arundale and Ernest Wood
1931 First
National Convention held in Dunedin
1945-2006
Freehold property, 236 High Street
1949 Visit by
John Coats (also 1959, 1970)
1978 A.Y.
Atkinson - BA Honours History thesis: Dunedin Theosophical Society (1892 to
1900)
2006-09 Rented
room, RSA Building, Moray Place
2009 Rented
room in Upstart Building, Water Street
2014 Bought new
building at 469 Hillside Road, Caversham; ie former Fitzroy hotel at Bathgate P